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1. The Neon Guild,a group of geeks. We've met twice monthly since 1995, and we have hundreds of members. It's like Cheers, only for geeks.
2. The Virginia Piedmont Technology Council represents our interests (theoretically) on a legal level to the state and beyond. I have some qualms with them, but the concept is great.
3. A wide variety of tech businesses populate the city, from gaming companies like Electronic Arts and (formerly) Boxer Jam to small shops like my website design firm. Not much homogeny, as a result.
4. Tech non-profits like Computers 4 Kids. Geeks need an outlet in their time off, but many of us are happy to keep doing computer stuff. Being able to donate time to organizations like this is great.

1. A wireless network. Downtown should be blanketed with 802.11b and a DHCP server to handle the users. No charge, something that the city would do as an incentive to tech businesses to set up house downtown. Not fast enough to be used as an office Internet connection, but sufficient for browsing at a café or something.
2. Tax breaks for tech start-ups. We have one for personal property taxes, but the state taxes are killers. It would be nice to see a graded tax that would leave companies paying full face-value after n years.
3. A clueful City Council. Most of them just don't get tech, and there's a general attitude that as goes the stock market, so goes the city's interest in having tech firms here. This is foolish, as tech firms are excellent businesses: non-polluting, compact, undemanding (ignoring my list here :), and high-paying. If the City were simply able to react to needs quickly, instead of running a 24-month study, I imagine that things would get done more quickly.

Just look under "Web Development Companies" on PHP's site, or under "Some MySQL Consultants" on MySQL's site. My company has been doing (almost exclusively) PHP/MySQL website development and consulting since the spring of 1999. Thanks in part to our listings on these sites, we get a good amount of site traffic (and therefore business) from folks looking for exactly what we do best.

-Waldo

I know that this is hardly ground-shaking, but our only complaint about these phones is that, bizarrely, they have no mute function. You can put somebody on hold, but during those extended conferences calls, sometimes you just want to hit mute to cough, have a drink, openly mock your client, etc. Unlike with our CDMA phones, these phones have never caused any interference with our office network.

-Waldo

On our line at the office, I got a call a few months ago from a friendly woman at AT&T, who wanted to know why we left them for our long distance service. I told her that we hadn't changed our long distance, that it was the same as it had always been. Concerned, she offered to switch us back.

I got a little suspicious, and got her phone number and extension, and told her that I'd call her right back. Reviewing our bills, I found I was right -- we'd been with Sprint ever since we started the business 14 months previously. Just to check, I called Sprint, and they said that we were still with them, just as we'd always been.

I called the woman back and demanded that she explain herself. She stuttered out a lame excuse: her computer said that I was with AT&T before, and that we're now with Joe's Long Distance, or something like that. I told her that was an absolute lie, and asked to speak with her supervisor. She said that she didn't have one, and hung up.

That is sneaky. BTW, we're now with Cable & Wireless. Our long distance bills have gone from -- really -- $13 / month to $1.25.

-Waldo

Last time we discussed this was in January of '99, when we all argued over the relative merits of my existence. (One of the more nerve-wracking experiences I've ever had.) Adam Penenberg (who has since quit after Forbes wanted him to expose a source in a hacking story) did a story on me called "Quit School. Join the web." I guess I'm a better example now -- I've got my own company that's actually doing very well. So I guess you can still chalk me up as an advocate of "joining the web."

-Waldo

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If they have any sense, they'll have professional liability insurance. For a company of our size, it's about $1.2K/year. Totally essential. For Razorfish, it'd be closer to $100K/year, I imagine. Still totally worth having, and it'll save their ass in this case.

Note: IANAIA. (I Am Not An Insurance Agent)

-Waldo

My understanding of the law is that you don't need to be here in Virginia, or up in Maryland, in order to distribute software using that license. So the mere presence of a company in this state, such as mine, really shouldn't be criteria for boycott. Otherwise, I'd have to boycott myself. :)

However, Michael's point regarding companies that say that you're bound to UCITA regulations should definitely be boycotted. Hell, boycott might be too weak of a word. I will not only boycott these products -- I will actively encourage others to stay the hell away from them.

But please, let us Virginians (and Marylanders) be. We don't like the law either!

-Waldo

I'm a member of the Virginia Piedmont Technology Council, a group of tech business owners interested in making an impact on law and business methods in Central Virginia and Virginia as a whole. There's something like half a dozen other tech councils in the state.

You'd think that an organization like the VPTC would be all about fighting a law like UCITA. Lots of small companies, like mine, have no reason to be for UCITA. And the VPTC is made up primarily of small companies.

But, nope. The VPTC has made no moves to oppose UCITA and, in fact, I've been told that the tech council is in favour of it. But no official stance has been made.

Naturally, the other tech councils, from northern Virginia, are all for UCITA. (Their members include AOL & such.)

So, why isn't VPTC yelling like crazy? Because it's a social game. Why would VPTC oppose a law that, in their (our?) eyes, will almost certainly pass? Then they'd alienate the other tech councils, and be looked down upon by them. Also, VA's Secretary of Technology (the only position like it in the US) is all for UCITA, naturally, because he probably gets political donations for his party (read as: kickbacks), which primarily come from big companies like UUNet and AOL.

So, yeah, it'll pass. Because only the consumers are willing to make a big deal about this. But the people that we have to make a big deal at just aren't interested in hearing about it.

Yep, it's lame. And I intend to let the VPTC know about how I feel. (I'd be surprised if anybody on the board reads /.) But that's politics.

Ugly, huh?